Day 77 - Puntarenas, Costa Rica

Day 77 – Puntarenas, Costa Rica – Tuesday 31/7/12

Weather – Mainly cloudy. 24C – 33C

Sunrise – 5.29am

Sunset – 6.01pm

Time difference - minus 16 hours ex Sydney (back an hour last night)

At 4.10am this morning Sun Princess passed the island of Negritos Afuera which is in the Golfo De Nicoya, 8 miles from Puntarenas. The pilot boarded and guided us to our berth at Quay 5 west side.

Mucho gusto Costa Rica !!!!

This trip continues to pull surprises outa nowhere. Before this cruise I had never heard of Puntarenas, and it certainly did not make the 'must not miss' lists of ports in our itinerary, but we are so glad we called in here and got a little taste of Central America – we want more !!!!

We did a Princess tour in the morning which entailed a boat ride (coz we have not had much boat riding over the last 11 weeks) and a country drive to a macaw sanctuary. As mentioned before, it is all about expectations, and they were not that high to be honest, so what a treat we had this morning.

A short bus ride through the town of Puntarenas to where we boarded a little 15 seater boat. The rest of the bus were on a larger 30 seater, but we had to spilt up. We were lucky to be on the smaller one as it turned out, as it was able a bit more nimble through small offshoots of he river we motored along.

It was a lovely ride for about an hour through the most dense mangrove/rainforrest area with lots of birdlife. We also saw 3 crocodiles, but no photos unfortunately as the big suckers ducked under water by the time I had the camera ready.

We then took a 45 minute drive through the countryside, through little self sufficient towns to the macaw sanctuary. I expected a few birds in a few cages..again expectations blown away. 230 photos later, we had seen first hand in the open the most colourful display of big birds, particularly macaws and toucans I have seen. There were birds in pens, being rehabilitated, but after they complete their rehab, they hang around and fly all over the place, quite a sight.

Back into town, a quick freshen up on board, then back out again. We walked through the markets stalls set up along side the beach, and met up with friends Ross and Margaret. After a little shopping we headed inland looking for somewhere to eat. It did not take long until we came across a local seafood cafe/restaurant/cantina where we had a yummy lunch.

Then strolled through the main town of Puntarenas, an ice cream, and look see and we were back on board, after yet another wonderful day ashore. Pre-dinner show, drinkees, and dinner and we were done for the day.

At 7pm we will leave our berth and retrace our courses out of he port, and once clear we will steer a south westerly course passing Cabo Blanco. Sun Princess will round the headland finally steering a north westerly course across the Middle America Trench, beginning our 5 day ocean voyage towards Los Angeles.